HDEW Cameras Review

After a number of purchases I thought it was about time I gave HDEW Cameras a review. This little known supplier a bit of a gem and I’ve had a number of items from them over the years. Their business model is very interesting and allows them to supply branded cameras and lenses at significantly reduced prices.

First of all lets just kick the review off by saying that other than being a happy customer, I have no business or personal relationship with HDEW cameras at all.

Grey Market Imports

HDEW offer camera Brands such as Nikon and Cannon significantly cheaper by importing the products intended for foreign markets directly into the UK for sale which is known as a ‘Grey Market’ import. Some people will get all twitchy at the mention of ‘Grey Market’ imports believing that the products intended for example the Chinese market are somehow inferior to those destined for the UK. This is complete and utter rubbish!

All Nikon products are made in the same factories, generally China, Japan or Thailand and then shipped around the world. A camera or lens made destined for the UK or US market will come off exactly the same production line as one destined for China. Same materials, assembled by same people, same quality and same product. Have you ever noticed how the instruction booklet comes in many different languages? That’s because they are all assembled in once place and then shipped around the world!

What does differ and is important is the warranty. UK and US destined lenses often come with an extended warranty which will be honoured in their intended markets. There are stories of people buying products destined for overseas markets and the extended warranty not being accepted by Nikon UK or USA service centres.

Usually the other differences are the delivery time from China. Its possible to buy an item much cheaper on Flea-bay, but then there is the long wait time for delivery and then questionable after sales service with no UK consumer law protection. Plus you might get stung for import duties.

Even the extended warranty is a bit a questionable reason for me. I know when I buy a product from Currys or PC world and they offer an extended warranty for an extra 20% of the price or something daft I do the maths on risk and cost and say no and its essentially only an extended warranty where available you are paying extra for by insisting on buying a non Grey market product.

HDEW Cameras enter stage left

This is where HDEW Cameras come in, their business model overcomes all of these drawbacks, including the warranty.

They run on a rolling stock basis, so you seldom have to wait longer than a week for an item to come in.

You are buying from and they ship from the UK, so there are no imports to pay AND, you are protected by UK consumer law.

The manufacturers warranty is valid for 1 year, plus HDEW offer their own extended warranty on some products to give 3 years in total cover.

Their aftersales is superb, ring the number and within a ring or two you are talking to somebody in Surrey who is happy to help. Easy Peasy, being able to talk to somebody is always the clincher for me!

But how good is the service really?

Now my theory is you never really know how good a company is until something goes a bit wrong, its all just marketing and words until its put to the test. I’ve bought a camera from there before, plus several lenses but never had any cause for complaint. They have all worked perfectly until my last purchase, a Nikon 50mm F1.8G. It wasn’t a major problem, it all worked, but displayed a little built of front focus on my ‘fun’ D3200 camera and without a fine AF tune facility I couldn’t calibrate it.

I dropped one email to HDEW Lenses explaining the issue at 11pm and just 2 hours after they opened the next day I received a reply apologising, telling me to return the item for a replacement and asking how much my postage costs are so they could reimburse. Customer service doesn’t really get any better than that. Just after a week passed and I still hadn’t heard anything (remember they run on rolling stock basis) so I phoned up to check. phone answered immediately, on giving my order number the very helpful representative explained that the return was received and replacement had been sent out previous day and would be with me that day. On coming home Royal Mail had indeed tried to deliver, good as their word.

How big are the savings?

They can be small or quite significant, but even the smaller savings over buying from the big chains are worthwhile.

For instance I saved, about £21 on the Nikon 50mm 1.8G from buying at Jessops. Note a huge amount but that still a Sunday afternoon in a nice sunny beer garden for me and the family and significant on a product costing £140 in Jessops.

On my Nikon 70-200 F4 VR I around £200 pounds from not buying elsewhere. Everybody else was charging the close to RRP of over £1k at the time of purchase.

At the bigger end of the scale again the current price of a Nikon D750 at Jessops is £1,749. The exact same camera is £1,105 in HDEW at the time of writing, that’s a whopping £644 saving. That’s huge, its not a Sunday afternoon in my local beer garden, that’s enough to take me on a weeks holiday somewhere sunny!

Now for those of you who are still holding on to this idea of the manufacturers extended warranty being better and not trusting HDEW’s own let me put a question to you. If you were to walk into Currys and buy a camera with a 1 year warranty for £1,105 and the sales person offered you a 2 year extended warranty for £644 or 58% of the purchase price, what would your answer be? That’s what I thought! Now how about if they offered you a free warranty from a company you just hadn’t heard of before but had been around a long time? Would you take the free one or pay £644? Its as simple as that really!

About the Author

Brian Parkes is a wedding photographer living in Farnborough, Hampshire. Turning professional in 2003 he has shot over 170 weddings in all conditions ranging from sunshine to snow and is an accredited licentiate of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

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Comments ( 11 )

Hi Brian – this is a great help in deciding whether or not to use Hdew for a D810 purchase. I’m a bit worried though about this paragraph found in their terms and conditions. Does this mean that should customs decide to take a peak inside my parcel HDEW would deny all knowledge and refer them to me to be sued by Nikon for violating customs laws and intellectual property rights?! At the very least are they saying they could come back to me and ask for a few hundred pounds more in custom charges when the order arrives?

“INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.

Please note that by making a purchase on this website you will be acting as the importer of the product for all purposes including all customs regulations,copyright and trademark laws.You accept that the role of HDEW Cameras is limited to sourcing products and making them available for you to import directly from the country of origin.By purchasing a product through this website you authorise us to make arrangements for clearance of customs on your behalf for the products you have ordered.”

Excellent review Brian, I have previously purchased a 11-16mm w/a lens from hdew and couldn’t fault the lens or service. I am now waiting on my EOS 7D mkii to arrive this week also purchased from hdew and would recommend them to anyone.

Further to Greg’s enquiry regarding the clause in the T & C of HDEW, I asked Canon what their policy was on grey imports when I took a lens in for repairl. They referred me to their policy on their website which states….

‘Be aware that in the event of repairs under warranty, a proof of purchase will be required, and if this can not be given the product will not be eligible to benefit from local Canon warranty support. Find out more information on Parallel Imports page.’

Here is the link to that Parallel Imports page which includes the paragraph, ‘Sometimes Canon products are imported into your region, which were never intended by Canon for sale there. Also known as “grey goods”, they are often sold at lower prices – but the downside is they can cost you a lot more in the long term.’

Perhaps you could clarify what HDEW state in their T & C (which Greg went to length to copy and paste in his comment regarding the “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS’ ) in relation to Canon’s UK warranty policy?

Hi Robin, I don’t work for Hdew so dont keep up with their policies, it would be best to contact them directly for contact. At the time of writing however, they offered their own warranty on certain items unrelated to Nikon’s or Canon’s. In that context you would have to claim under HDEW’s policy rather than Nikon or Canon’s which as you rightly point out, are invalid on Grey Market goods. That said, providing you understand that at the time of purchase and make an informed decision that the price difference is worth the loss of Nikon’s or Canon’s warranty, particularly where HDEW is offering their own warranty is a perfectly fine.

Hi,
What about cameras & lenses from Olympus ? How different is their European / Worldwide warranty compared to the UK one for UK purchased items ?
Will Olympus honour a warranty for a camera purchased elsewhere, i.e. Europe, China etc. if a repair was required ?
Can you register an Olympus product bought from a non-UK source here in the UK ?
I need to know as for me buying a new Olympus camera ( EM1 mark II ) is a very expensive outlay and I need to be sure that the warranty will be honoured here in the UK by Olympus UK as suppliers offer an additional 2 year warranty at no extra cost.